Break Ups and Break-Ins

by Raven Snow

  Rowen snapped upright. Eric was still with the officer, sitting on the sofa with his shirt sleeve rolled all the way up. Through the blinds came flashes of blue and red lights. There was an ambulance there and, at least, one other police vehicle. Rowen didn’t have time to come to her senses and get to her feet before the front door slammed open. Rowen expected police or maybe an EMT. Instead, Rose came rushing inside. She was wearing a baggy t-shirt with a teddy bear on it and plaid pajama pants. She obviously hadn’t bothered to change. Her black hair was a tousled mess and her eyes were wide. They landed on Rowen and Margo milliseconds before she hurried over.

  “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.” Rose crouched down near the stairs and hastily looked them both over. “Are you all right? What happened? Were you hurt?”

  Margo pointed over Rose’s shoulder to where Eric sat on the sofa. “Eric got shot.”

  If it was possible, Rose went even paler. “What?” She turned to look in the direction Margo was pointing. “Oh my God,” she swore again.

  Rowen caught Rose by the shoulder before she could rush over to him next. She could see a couple of EMTs making their way inside. They would want their space while they helped him. “He’s all right,” Rowen said. “At least I think he’s all right.”

  Eric probably hadn’t heard what they had said from that distance, but he could see them. He raised his hand in a halfhearted wave, winced, then raised the uninjured one instead.

  “Yeah, see? He’s all right.” Rowen hoped that was true. No one was acting like it was anything more than a superficial wound. There was a lot of blood, but it did seem to look a lot worse than it was.

  Rose frowned but looked back to her cousins. “Are you two all right?”

  “No,” Margo said plainly. “How could we be all right? Someone tried to kill us. Again!”

  Rose shook her head slowly. “I can’t believe this.” She looked back at the door. “Ben said that he had someone combing the area. Maybe they’ll find the shooter.”

  “I don’t like the sound of that. I don’t like maybes.” Margo’s apologetic and concerned demeanor was quickly devolving into a simmering rage. “There were two officers on patrol all night. They were supposed to be watching the house so something like this didn’t happen. Forgive me if I don’t have much faith in their abilities.”

  Ben was coming through the front door at about that time. He was talking over his shoulder to an officer as he went. Rowen hoped that her cousin didn’t have any harsh words for him. He hadn’t done anything wrong. He’d just done his job.

  Ben spotted Rowen and the others and made a beeline for them. “How are you—”

  “Have they found anyone?” Margo interrupted Ben with a question of her own. She didn’t stand, but she did sit up straighter, lifting her chin like she did when she was about to give someone a piece of her mind. Rowen put a hand on her arm to try to ease her down from going off on Ben. Margo paid her no mind.

  “You mean—”

  “The criminal who shot at us, yes. You know, the person I was supposed to be protected from? I was supposed to be safe here.”

  Ben took a deep breath. He knew Margo well enough by now to know there was no excuse, no reasoning he could give her when she was like this. This whole thing had probably been more in Sutton’s wheelhouse. Sutton was the one who was supposed to take over the case. He didn’t say that. Instead, he nodded. “We’re going to figure something out. In the meantime, we’ll take you down to the station. Obviously, your safety is our top concern.”

  “Is it? Because this happened.”

  “As a member of this family now, I can say with great certainty that, yes. Your safety means a lot to me. Not just as a member of the police force and a fellow human being. Rose and I would be especially devastated if anything happened to any of you. I’m sorry we underestimated the danger you were in. I’ll do everything in my power to correct our oversights from here on out. Right now, I’m just relieved you’re okay.”

  Rowen saw Rose reach back and give her husband’s hand a squeeze. He had managed to throw on some clothes other than his pajamas, but he still looked more disheveled than usual. His shirt was untucked and he’d missed a button. Margo stared at him, her mouth a hard, impassive line. Gradually, her expression softened. “Well, so long as you take this seriously from now on.” That felt a little unfair. Rowen didn’t think it was right to accuse Ben of taking any of this lightly. It was probably the most any of them could hope for out of her, though. “I guess I won’t… press charges or anything.”

  Ben took another deep breath. “Thank you.” To his credit, he kept a straight face.

  Rowen looked up as Eric approached. Some EMTs were hovering around him, like they didn’t want him moving around too much. “Hey, Ben, do you think you could have a talk with these guys?”

  “Hmm?” Ben looked from the EMTs to Eric.

  “They want me to go to the hospital, but I really don’t think that’s necessary. Do you think you could have a word and get them to back off?”

  Rowen spoke before Ben got a chance to. “Honey, they know what they’re doing. If they think you should go to the hospital, then that’s what you should do.”

  An EMT began to say something, but Eric raised his good hand, cutting him off. “Look, I’m just tired. The last two days have gone on forever. I don’t want to spend another few hours in a hospital if I can help it.”

  “It’s not like we can stay here,” Rowen pointed out.

  “I know, but we’re not spending all night at the hospital either. I’m down with spending the night somewhere else, but I really just want to go to bed.”

  “I’m not really in charge of—” Ben stopped. “I’ll have a word with them.” He headed for the door, toward the ambulance. He motioned both Eric and the EMTs out with him.

  Rowen began to follow, determined to make sure that Eric got the medical help he needed. She didn’t make it out the door completely before Sutton came in, blocking her path.

  Sutton looked a little more together this time. He was wearing a wool coat over his work clothes, like he’d been at the station until not so long ago. He ran his fingers through his dark hair pushing it back from his face as his wide eyes scanned his surroundings. They landed on Margo at the stairs and he crossed the room to her.

  Rowen looked out the door and in the direction Ben had gone with her husband. Eric was standing at the ambulance. She could barely see him silhouetted against the flashing lights. She didn’t think Ben would let him make any decisions without her. Even if he did, Rowen could probably trust him to make the right decision. This wasn’t just his family. Ben also had his career to think about. He wouldn’t let Eric do anything unwise.

  Curiosity got the better of Rowen. She returned to the stairs just as Margo was standing up. She was hugging herself and breathing quickly. She hadn’t looked this shaken moments ago. Rowen couldn’t help but wonder if she wasn’t playing it up.

  “I thought I was supposed to be safe here,” sniffed Margo, playing the same angle she had with Ben.

  “You should have been. We can take further precautions moving forward from here.”

  “And what about what happened tonight?”

  “It was awful from the sound of it. We’ll try not to let it happen again. Are you all right?”

  “Am I all right?” Margo repeated incredulously. “Of course I’m not all right! None of you did your job! You didn’t protect me! I could have been killed! Rowen and Eric could have been killed!”

  Detective Sutton’s expression hardened a little. “We did our job.”

  “You didn’t do—”

  “We did everything by the book. We had no way of knowing that he would try again, much less this soon. We couldn’t use resources before—”

  “Oh, so I’m not even worth protecting, huh?”

  “I never said that.”

  “You implied it!”

  “You’re putting words in my mouth. Look, I’m glad you’re okay.�
�

  “I’m not okay! Someone tried to kill me!”

  “But they didn’t.”

  “Not for lack of trying!”

  Sutton broadened his attention to everyone, not just Margo. He wasn’t getting very far trying to talk with her. “What happened?”

  Margo huffed and sat back down. Rowen recalled all the events of the night for him as best she could remember. She was sure it was a tale she was going to have to repeat several times over before the night was through.

  Sutton pulled a pad of paper from his pocket and reached for his pen. He didn’t write anything down, though. He looked distracted, like he had more important things to wonder at.

  After Rowen had finished, Sutton began to ask her some follow-up questions. He asked for the approximate time the whole thing had taken place during and if Rowen would be willing to come down to the station and give a full statement. That last part felt more like a formality. There was no way anyone was going to let Rowen get by with not going to the police station.

  Rowen was still talking to Sutton when a new face came through the front door. She had expected to see one of her aunts rushing in with high-pitched exclamations of concern. Instead, she saw Jasper wearing a suit jacket over a disheveled black t-shirt and looking pale.

  “Oh, right.” Rose turned and spotted him at the door. “I called him on our way.”

  “You didn’t call anyone else?” asked Rowen.

  Rose shook her head. “If I tell one of them, I figure the whole family would know. I didn’t want to drag them out of bed. They’d just get in the way down here.”

  Rowen nodded. Knowing her aunts and cousins weren’t on their way to swamp the crime scene was a relief. She had a feeling she would be hearing about it in the morning though.

  “I wanted to call Jasper after… Well, you remember what happened last time.” Rose spoke quietly. She was referring, of course, to how angry Margo had been when Jasper hadn’t shown up because he hadn’t answered his phone.

  “I see you deigned to turn on your phone this time.” There wasn’t a whole lot of venom in Margo’s words as she spoke and stood. She went over to Jasper and put her arms around him. He closed them around her in turn, though he still looked out of sorts.

  “You got here quick this time,” said Sutton.

  “Hmm?” It took Jasper’s mind a moment to catch up with what Sutton had just said. “Oh, yeah.” He looked back to Margo. “Are you all right?”

  “I don’t know yet.”

  “I think you should come stay with me. There’s room at the hotel or we can go back to my parents’.”

  Margo didn’t get a chance to voice her own thoughts on that. Sutton beat her to it. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “And why is that?” asked Jasper, turning on him.

  “I don’t know why you would think she’s going to be any safer in a hotel room.”

  “That was just one option. We could also go stay with my parents.”

  At the mention of Jasper’s parents, Margo immediately pulled a face. Even when it came down to life and death, the Stonewall’s house was still a last resort. She didn’t say anything, but it was obvious she didn’t want to go there.

  “It’s not even in Lainswich,” Jasper continued, undaunted. “She’ll be safer out there.”

  “You have no guarantee of that,” said Sutton, unconvinced. He folded his arms over his chest and squared his shoulders. He was a much larger man than Jasper, not that Jasper stepped down from the indirect challenge. “Tarricville isn’t a long drive away. It’s not like you’re putting an ocean of difference between the two of you. It’s an hour’s drive at best.”

  “There. Putting an ocean between us isn’t a bad idea. We can go on a little vacation.” Jasper looked past Sutton and at Margo. “How does that sound. You were saying you wanted to go back to Europe, right?”

  Margo squirmed. Sutton was looking at her too now. Rowen had to admit that this sounded like a viable option. To her great surprise, Margo shook her head. “I don’t want to skip town.”

  “What?” Jasper sounded like he hadn’t expected that response. “Why? You’re in danger here.”

  “What if they go after someone in my family while I’m gone? What if it’s not just me they’re after? I’m not going to risk that.”

  “Margo—” began Rose. Rowen was about to say something as well. She wanted Margo to protect herself. There was no point on her risking her safety on the off chance that whoever this maniac was wanted to hurt more of the Greensmith friends and family.

  “I don’t want to leave,” Margo insisted, interrupting. “It’s not just putting you guys in danger. I don’t want to run. I want to stay and help you guys figure this out. I feel like there’s a lot I can do here. If he is just after me then he’ll go into hiding after I leave, right? He won’t poke his head up, and he’ll still be around when I get back. It’s not like I can just stay gone forever. I don’t want to. Lainswich is my home. I’m not going to let some maniac run me out.”

  “I still don’t think it would be a bad idea to leave for a while,” Jasper muttered. “It would give the police a chance to actually do their jobs and look into things.”

  Sutton frowned down at Jasper, his arms still crossed. “Well, I think Margo makes a good point.” He earned himself a glare from Margo for that, but he ignored it. “I feel like she could be more than helpful in all of this. She’s instrumental in solving this thing.”

  “And how do you intend to protect her?”

  “I was actually thinking of letting her stay with me.”

  Rowen hadn’t even considered that. It wasn’t a bad idea. If Margo wouldn’t stay with Ben, Sutton was the next best thing short of literally sleeping in the police station. And an indeterminate number of nights at the police station definitely wasn’t an option. Someone would have to be beyond bold to try and get to her in Sutton’s own home. Given his line of work, he probably also had a few guns at home. Guns made Rowen nervous, but right now protection felt like a necessity. After the night they had had, she was tempted to go and get one herself. Not that it would have done her much good tonight. She had never seen the face of the person who attacked them. For all she knew, he was long gone by the time she had even made it downstairs.

  As good as Sutton’s idea might be, Rowen had her reservations. The biggest one was how Jasper would take it. Judging from his expression, not well.

  “Oh, so you can keep her safe but I can’t?” Jasper raised his voice, probably without meaning to. A couple of officers looked in their direction.

  “Keep it down,” warned Sutton. “And yes. I can. I’m trained for this sort of thing. Do you have any experience in a fire fight? Apprehending criminals? Anything?”

  Jasper’s face was turning red. When he spoke again, he was much quieter. “I feel like there are probably other options. Better options.”

  “If you can name one, I’m all ears.” Sutton fixed Jasper with a look that said he was waiting.

  Jasper opened his mouth. Rowen could see his mind working behind his narrowed eyes. After a few moments he closed his mouth again.

  “Right, so if Margo has no objections, I think that might be our best option.”

  Margo had been watching this whole exchange thoughtfully. She nodded when Sutton was finished speaking. “That does sound like a good idea to me.”

  Rowen hoped that she could take that at face value, that Margo genuinely thought this was her best shot at safety. Now really wasn’t the time to go running into the arms of another guy. If Jasper figured out what was potentially going on between them…

  Rowen recalled her suspicions about Jasper. She bit her bottom lip and hoped again that she was wrong. She would have to bring it up with Margo later, she decided. Just in case.

  “Good.” Sutton nodded. “We’ll talk about this more down at the station. If you’ll excuse me—” He turned and headed for the door. He probably needed to have a word with some of the other officers o
r maybe Ben.

  Once he was gone, Jasper took Margo by the arm and gave her a gentle tug away from the stairs. “Do you think we could talk for a minute?”

  Margo gave a very put-upon sigh like she wasn’t in the mood for any of it. “Fine,” she said and moved with him towards the kitchen.

  “That went well,” Rowen muttered to Rose once they were alone.

  Rose sighed and rolled her eyes. “This whole thing is a mess.”

  “Yeah, well, what can you do?” Rowen headed outside and to the ambulance to check on her husband.

  Ben had managed to talk the EMTs out of taking Eric to the hospital. Rowen wasn’t sure how she felt about that at first, but she was assured an actual doctor would meet them at the police station. The hospital wasn’t far, and Ben knew a guy.

  The rest of the night played out as expected. They went to the police station and answered an endless barrage of questions. Rowen had to drink a lot of coffee just to keep her eyes open. Even then, she found herself drifting off more than once. Eric and Margo both legitimately fell asleep a couple of times. Ben let them leave the room and snooze for a couple of hours in the break room while he questioned Rowen more thoroughly.

  There wasn’t a whole lot to tell, of course. Most of what they talked about was trying to plan for the future. Also, Rowen felt like she should mention something about Jasper. She still didn’t think it was him, but it felt weird not saying anything.

  “Do you really think he might have something to do with it?” Ben asked, leaning back in his seat while Rowen spoke. They hadn’t been alone until now. Rowen had waited until Sutton was gone and the video camera was off. She had enough reservations just relaying her thoughts to Ben.

  Rowen shook her head “I really don’t. I just thought it was worth mentioning.”

  “Has he ever been violent with her before?”

  “No,” Rowen said quickly. “At least, he doesn’t seem like the type. And Margo definitely isn’t the kind of person who would stand for something like that happening without mentioning something. If anything, I’d assume she was the more aggressive one in that relationship.”